(pensive music) - My name's John Meader.

I am the owner and director of Northern Stars Planetarium.

And today, we're gonna talk about photographing the upcoming eclipse, which will take place on April 8th this year.

And I'm gonna show you some the equipment I use and talk a little bit about how to expose it and what you can do to take a picture of yourself.

(pensive music) It depends how close you want to get.

If you want to get an up-close picture of the eclipse, so you see the disk of the moon with the corona of the sun around it, then you need to have something probably more than your cell phone, and so like a DSLR camera or a mirrorless camera.

You also need to have a solar filter that fits over your camera so you don't end up burning a hole in your lens or your eye if you are looking through the camera to focus.

Those are the two key things.

Third, you really need a decent tripod.

Most filters screw on, but you can get filters that go, that will kinda wrap over to.

You wanna do some research.

If you don't have a filter yet, you want to get on that right now because as we get close to the eclipse, it's gonna be harder to get a hold of those filters.

It goes on the front of the lens, and it looks like a mirror, and it reflects 99.99% of the light.

The only thing that's gonna come through this is the sun itself.

You use this during the partial phases of the eclipse 'cause if any part of the sun's disk is visible, you can't look at it directly with your camera with your eyes 'cause you'll do eye damage and you can damage your camera 'cause it's so bright.

And if you're using a larger lens like this, so you can zoom in and get a nice picture of the sun, you're really focusing that light in on your sensor.

So you really do want to cut it down and make it safe.

During totality, if you want to photograph totality, you have to take this off.

When during totality, you look through this, you won't see anything because the corona really isn't bright compared to the disk of the sun.

So you take it off and then you shoot directly at the sun.

And, but as soon as it's over in third contact, which is when the sun reappears, if you wanna keep shooting, you gotta put this thing back on, almost instantly as fast as you can.

(pensive music) People think an eclipse is more dangerous than the sun on a sunny day, and it's not, it's just as dangerous.

You go out on a sunny day and stare at the sun for 10 seconds, you'll permanently damage your eyes.

So we don't worry about that 'cause on a sunny day, you glance at the sun, it kind of hurts.

You see spots, that's annoying, so you stop doing it.

The problem with the eclipse is you want see it.

And so the simplest thing is to get a pair of eclipse glasses.

Similar to these.

You can get these in a number of places.

You can get them online on Amazon, a place called Rainbow Symphony.

You can buy at the Versant Power Astronomy Center at University of Maine at Orono.

About two bucks a pair, maybe three bucks a pair.

If you wait till the day of the eclipse, you may pay $20 a pair.

(John laughing) You can't see anything through this but the eclipse, so you wanna make sure you get a decent pair.

They're inexpensive.

If you have an old pair, they're probably fine.

But if they're wrinkled or crinkled, if they've been sat on, buy a new pair.

All it takes is a pinhole through these and you're gonna damage your eyes.

So this lets you see it directly.

With this, if you want to get this pointed at the sun, kind of what you do is you look at its shadow down below and you move the camera very slowly and gently until the shadow gets really small until it's... And that's when it's gonna be lined up with the sun, and then you lock it in place.

That's why you really want a good steady tripod.

(pensive music) You do a lot of post-production with eclipse shots.

To get a nice shot, you have to be willing to play in Photoshop, and clean it up, and very often combine pictures.

The camera doesn't see the same thing your eye sees, and so you shoot at different exposures 'cause the long exposure will show you the fainter corona, which is really beautiful.

But in close the sun, there are prominences and things that may show up for those who need a faster exposure 'cause otherwise, they wash out.

So you wanna shoot long exposure and short exposures.

I set my camera to bracket automatically by at least five exposures.

So I press the button and I use a remote control, so I'm not even having to touch the camera, and I press it, and it goes click, click, click, click, click, and it just took five shots.

And I do that every 20 seconds or maybe 15 seconds.

You know, film is cheap these days, as they say.

So shoot a lot to work with.

And then you have a lot to play with when you get back home.

(pensive music) There's lots of logistics around eclipses because you have to be in the line of eclipse.

And the shadow of the moon is about 170 miles wide, which sounds like a pretty big shadow, but compared to the disk of the earth, that's pretty small.

And that shadow's moving at 1,200 miles an hour.

So even though it's 170 miles or better in diameter, at 1,200 miles an hour, it's going to pass over us and I'll be in Jackman, and it's gonna pass over us in 3 1/2 minutes, a little less than 3 1/2 minutes.

So you wanna have your act together.

That's why I suggest you practice shooting the sun now between now and then.

So you know what your exposures need to be and you know how to get it pointed at the sun so that when the day comes, you can enjoy it.

I like to set my camera up so that it's all set.

When I wanna shoot, I press the button, I don't have to look through the lens, I'm just...

If I've done it right, done my homework right, it'll do the thing.

And then I can actually look at the eclipse.

One of the things that my colleagues and I always tell people, "If you've never seen an eclipse, don't do this.

Just watch it."

There's an old saying among astronomers that all eclipses last eight seconds.

And you may think, "Well, this one will last 3 1/2 minutes."

It's gonna feel like eight seconds.

It goes by really fast 'cause it's such an unworldly feel, and you really need to just experience that if this is your very first one.

We're gonna be there the before and we're gonna set up in a public event so that people can come and we can help people observe this eclipse up in Jackman.

But even if I was just going to shoot myself, I'd wanna get there early enough to get a spot set up so I have a spot that's mine, and I'm comfortable and not get there late, and they're like, "Where am I gonna go?

Where am I gonna park my car?"

You can find there's a lot of people there, and you want to have a spot set so you're comfortable.

Bring a chair too 'cause you may be sitting around for a couple hours before the eclipse happens.

And bring water and all those things that you need personally that make yourself comfortable.

The other thing to really think about isn't so much before the eclipse, but after the eclipse.

People trickle in, and then the eclipse is over, and suddenly everyone wants to go home.

And I'm gonna be in Jackman, Maine.

I don't know if you folks have ever been in Jackman, Maine, but there aren't that many roads in and out of Jackman.

You go down 201 towards Skowhegan, or over towards Rockwood, or up towards Quebec.

Yes there are lots of backwoods roads.

It's April 8th, not a time to be driving woods roads.

If this was July or August, it'd be a whole different ball game.

So if everyone leaves, you can literally be in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

So if you can stay the night after the eclipse, it's a good move.

(pensive music) The path is 170 miles wide.

If you go...

So you're just inside that path, the eclipse may last 15 seconds.

The closer you get to the center of the path, the longer it will last.

In the center of the path in Jackman is gonna be three minutes and 29 seconds.

If you're in Bingham, it's gonna be maybe 30 seconds or 40 seconds at most.

And if you're in the Forks, is gonna be a minute and a half.

So the closer you get to the center line, the longer it will last.

And if you want to really enjoy it, you want it to last long 'cause it's only gonna feel like eight seconds, right?

(John laughing) So we're in Jackman because Jackman is on center line, and that's why we picked that spot.

One more thing as far as location goes, beyond getting to center line, you want to think about where the sun's gonna be in the sky.

This eclipse is gonna peak at 3:30 in the afternoon.

So that means the sun's gonna be in the Southwest.

So you don't want to park yourself in some spot where there's a great big tree in the Southwest, you wanna make sure you've got a view to where the sun's gonna be that's unobstructed.

So it seems like a no-brainer, but you may find, "Oh, it's beautiful.

Look, the sun's up there."

But when it's over there, it's not so good.

So you gotta think those things through on a local level.

(pensive music) Look through the pictures you took, and if you... Like me, I am at home, I'm gonna have five or 600 photographs, and I'm really just looking for one nice one in the end.

And it may take four or five.

The one I did for 2017, that was 18 shots combined.

Most people aren't gonna want to do that.

That's for geeks like me.

Just find a nice one.

And what you might do in Lightroom or Photoshop is play with the contrast a little bit.

Make that dark dark, and make the lights bright, and look at the Corona, look for the structure in that.

It looks like waves, or wind, or smoke, or something.

Try to bring that out just by playing with contrast, with brightness, with clarity, and mess with it, and save it as something else so that you always have your original.

(John laughing) And just play with it until you get something you like.

Then, you can send it off to your favorite printer and have it printed up.

Or just share it on social media, whatever you like, and try to enjoy that process.

It doesn't have to be perfect 'cause it's your experience, so let it be yours.

(pensive music) (gentle music)